LA Drupal meetup Tuesday, July 27th (7:30-9:30pm in Santa Monica)

It's time for another LA Drupal meetup! We're being graciously hosted by Causecast at their offices in Santa Monica on July 27th, 2010. Please join us!

Attending the LA Drupal meetups is one of the best ways to meet and talk with fellow Drupal users and professionals. We come together to learn what's new in the Drupal world and share solutions, meeting interesting like-minded people. LA Drupal meetups are an essential resource for Drupal professionals and hobbyists alike.

At our meetups we host several presentations and give time for open networking, discussions, and job announcements. With over 60 people every meeting you are sure to find Drupal work and talent.

This event is free and no RSVP is required. Attendees get to join in our raffles for prizes. Food and drinks will be provided courtesy of our venue sponsor Causecast.org. If you plan to attend please log in and click the Sign up button below so we get an early head count for food and drinks. Those who sign up will also receive last-minute details (if there are any) by email before the event.

Location

We're meeting at Causecast at 1558 10th St. (Unit D) on the corner of 10th and Colorado in Santa Monica, California. There's plenty of free on-street parking.

About our location sponsor: Dubbed "a one stop philanthropy shop" by TechCrunch, Causecast is a platform where media, philanthropy, social networking, entertainment and education converge to serve a greater purpose. From the environment to human rights and animals to the arts, Causecast helps members connect to the causes, charities, and nonprofits they care about. Causecast has been a long-time venue sponsor of the LA Drupal meetups and we're grateful for their support.

Agenda

   Community and job announcements

There's always a lot going on with Drupal and LA Drupal. We kick off our meetings with community announcements and Drupal news.

   Presentations & Lightning Talks TBA

• Presentation: Clean markup and lean stylesheets are important for performance, readability, and compatibility with browsers. However, themers and developers who are new to Drupal may struggle with getting their Views to look and function exactly as they like. Helior Colorado of ActiveLAMP will discuss what it takes to override and develop Views templates in order to gain full control of how each View is rendered in your Drupal site. Along the way we will also cover the topics of organization, resource efficiency, front-end performance, and preprocessing views data.

• Lightning Talk: Drush Plug-ins - our resident author, Chris Charlton will be discussing Drush plug-ins highlighting his favorites for Drupal administration and development.

• DrupalCamp LA Must-See! - It's almost time for our annual DrupalCamp taking place this August 7-8 at UC Irvine. A wonderful venue and surely wonderful Drupal content so come ask and see what sessions are right for you. If you plan to present a session or participate in a BoF at DrupalCamp LA then you should attend to see what we need presenters to do in preparation of the camp so we can record all the sessions. It's easy, just join us and/or read http://2010.drupalcampla.com/information/presenters for more details.

   Raffles & Prizes

We love our sponsors and our sponsors love us! We have several raffle prizes ranging from good books to training DVDs, and a 1-month pass to Lynda.com in celebration of the Drupal Themes learning course available online 24/7.

No purchase necessary and must be present to win. Would like to sponsor a raffle prize at the LA Drupal meetups? Please come early or contact the LA Drupal managers at managers at ladrupal.org.

   Open Q&A - Ask a Drupal Question!

Everyone has a Drupal question every now and then and the open Q&A session is when attendees help each other with answers from the collective wisdom from the group. Half of our monthly attendees are newbies and first-timers. There's no such thing as a bad question, just bad answers!

   Lightning talks

We usually have lightning talks which are 5-10 minute quick presentations from attendees who would like to share something with the group. If you'd like to give a lightning talk, be sure to come a few minutes early and bring your laptop (and power and display cables) and whatever else you need.

As always, please feel welcome to leave a comment below and let others know what you'd like to present ahead of time.

   Networking and cleanup

There's plenty of time for people to network and make connections at the end. We do ask that if you stay to please help putting away some of the chairs and any little cleanup to leave our beloved venue as clean as when we found it.

   Drupal After Dark

Sometimes people like to call an afterparty once the meeting is over, allowing more Drupal chatter and networking to take place. Usually people go out for food and drinks. Keep an eye out for comments below to know if an afterparty will happen for this night.

About LA Drupal

The LA Drupal community in and around Los Angeles, California, is one of the world's largest regional Drupal user groups. With regular Drupal trainings, monthly meetings and social gatherings, LA Drupal is Southern California's largest hub for all things Drupal. LA Drupal is also the producer of the annual DrupalCamp LA conference, the largest independent Drupal event on the United States West coast.

If you aren't already part of LA Drupal, it's easy to become a member. We have several meetings every month that are free and open to everyone. There are also social gatherings and formal working meetings that sometimes happen throughout the month. Events are announced here and at the LA Drupal website.